Side Chair 1805 - 1815

This side chair was crafted by Duncan Phyfe, a Scottish immigrant who became one of the leading cabinetmakers in New York during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Phyfe's designs, while celebrated for their elegance, also reflect the complex social hierarchies of the time. These chairs, for example, would have been commissioned by wealthy families, their polished surfaces and refined details speaking to a world of privilege and social status. Yet, we must also consider the labor involved in their creation, the hands of skilled artisans, some of whom were enslaved, who contributed to these objects of luxury. Phyfe’s success underscores how aesthetics and ethics were intertwined in the decorative arts. As we admire the chair's Neoclassical motifs, its delicate balance and symmetry, we might also reflect on the larger narratives of power and inequality embedded in its very making.